#Confirmation Bias

[dantesjourney]

I really wish more people on the left/blue side of things in the US would start verifying things before sharing. There is twisted information on both sides, and I'm seeing so many people doing the exact same thing we like to crucify the right for - sharing/reposting/amplifying something just because it alines with our beliefs/fears/narrative. Without fact checking or independent verification.

Search engines are free.

Idc how much you trust the source - even trusted, reliable sources can be wrong sometimes. Verify it for yourself.

I'm not saying they're necessarily willfully lying to us. There is so much information coming at all of us at such an incredible rate that it is easy to misunderstand, misinterpret, misread, take something out of context or simply get swept up in the emotion of it all and forget to fact check.

Also, we're only human. Those of us with a working moral compass, a heart and more than two functioning brain cells are quite rightly terrified/experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions. It is easy to get caught up in that to the point that it takes over. Stop. Take a deep breath. Back away from the social media and go look it up with a proper search engine. Sometimes you might be pleasantly surprised.

This entire situation is exhausting enough without repeated facepalms from seeing people I know and love on the left spreading misinformation simply because it is plausible and/or aligns with the narrative they want.

[creature-wizard]

What's so bad about angel numbers?

So the main problem with angel numbers that I see, is that they make people feel really certain about things that have nothing to do with reality.

For example, you might have this spiritual kinda person who meets this New Ager who's deep into QAnon-type conspiracy theories, and while they're chatting the first person sees that the clock says 11:11 and thinks that she must be on the right path. So she feels really, really sure of herself when she comes out of this conversation convinced that Donald Trump is saving children from satanic blood-drinking pedophiles.

The same kind of thing can happen with any kind of synchronicity, of course. (Or seeming synchronicity, at least. The frequency illusion is a hell of a thing.) Confirmation bias pulls people deeper and deeper into worldviews and beliefs completely unhinged from reality.

And like, I've experienced synchronicities myself, some of which seem way too wild to be coincidental, so I know how compelling these experiences can be. But at the same time, I know that these synchronicities had nothing to do with any sort of grand spiritual journey toward the truth, because they were basically always about whatever random shit I was fixating on at the time. This whole idea that synchronicities must be some grand cosmic sign is extremely dangerous.

[acti-veg]

It is just so funny to me to see popular posts making fun of climate change deniers, alongside similarly popular anti-vegan posts engaging in the kind of denialism that would make a flat-earther blush. But who needs a source when you have confirmation bias?

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

"If you do or do not believe in god and do or do not repost this something will or will not happen."

I couldn't believe it! It worked for me!

[eretzyisrael]

Elica Le Bon الیکا‌ ل بن @elicalebon:

"There is a very specific psychological process behind the “Jews control the world” trope that antisemitic persons subscribe to.

Let’s break down the process:

By way of background, millennia of anti-Jewish propaganda creates a conditioned stimulus - conditioned response effect.

First, they’re exposed to an event (conditioned stimulus). Because of their programmed internal bias, they automatically draw assumptions about Jews being somehow guilty in relation to the event (conditioned response).

Second, they engage in confirmation bias—“the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs”—by looking for information that tends to support their demonized perception of Jews.

Third, they draw conclusions on what they falsely determine to be “facts, research, and evidence” (which is in fact just confirmation bias), that the Jews are in fact entirely at fault for the event.

Fourth, they begin to observe that certain media outlets or commentators contradict their narrative and portray the event in a much more balanced way, or in a way that may exonerate Jews from the unfair charges levied against them.

Here, they enter a state of cognitive dissonance: the discomfort felt when one’s perceptions or beliefs are inconsistent with reality, thus compelling their desire to end the psychological disturbance.

Finally, because they cannot reconcile these two things—the contradiction between perception and reality—the solution to alleviate this uncomfortable state is not to admit that they were wrong (which may cause even more discomfort in identifying themselves as hateful) but to reason that they are most certainly correct, and that the only explanation for this contradiction is that Jews control the world, the media, and the narrative, and are dictating that narrative in their favor (full blown conspiracy psychosis).

At this stage, If they suffer from an intense savior complex, they may make it their mission to “expose” this “truth about Zionists” to the world, hoping the gnawing feeling of internal deregulation will be resolved by doubling down against it.

At bottom, they just cannot accept that their “truth” about Jews is fundamentally hatred, bigotry, bias, and cold, hard antisemitism.

It’s been thousands of years in the making and always ends in bloodshed - when are we implementing programs to dismantle this in schools?''

[tilbageidanmark]

A list of cognitive biases

[catofoldstones]

[mrbopst]

[unwelcome-ozian]

Confirmation Bias Tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information that confirms or strengthens one’s prior personal beliefs or hypotheses. It is a type of cognitive bias

[sophieinwonderland]

Plural community uses a word that already exists to describe an experience → a fictional medium uses that word → said fictional medium becomes popular → all instances of the phrase are now because of said popular fictional medium → everyone who uses phrase is just a fan of popular thing and therefore a faker

This is about NPC/digital circus btw

You know, this actually demonstrates some fun aspects of confirmation bias in r/systemscringe beliefs.

I saw this with certain members of the hatesub also assuming every religious headmate people had was based on Hazbin Hotel after it was released. Despite the fact that religious headmates are very well-documented in academic literature.

It's not too surprising how, since one of the sub's core beliefs is that "fakers" always form alters from popular media, they would associate terminology in the plural community with popular media which then confirms their pre-existing beliefs. Even when there's no connection between the two.

Because yeah, NPC has been in the community forever. I first saw the term on r/tulpas before I ever made this blog.

I've personally used it since long before the Amazing Digital Circus ever aired. But to r/systemscringe, they just this as something I got from a popular show. 🤷‍♀️

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Last thought before bed:

If you are going "omg looking back it is so obvious DJ and Ty were dating!!" and your sources are the same public-facing sources anyone has (insta photos of two people who like each other because they were both on a show with famous amounts of cast-likability): you didn't know shit. You're just doing a cannon ball into the worst kind of confirmation bias.

You didn't know. And it's fucking weird you are trying to pretend like you knew. And it's fucking weird to act like there were any loud clues to point you in that direction.

"BUT GAYLE THE KISSING PHOTO--"

The one at someone's birthday with Ty in a sailor hat? That one? The one that looks like any number of fun, casual, goofy moments between two men even when one of them is an out gay man?

You didn't know. It's fucking weird and uncomfortable to act like you did. These are two actual people not characters from that mid-tier show we all watched. Knock it off.

[mafaldaknows]

Twitter: Stopworkplacebullies

[sexyv0dkainchains]

RANT ABOUT RELIGION

As someone who is scarred for life due to cptsd that developed from a near death experience at the age of 3, it pains me when people dismiss trauma as not being able to love god or “oh you’re not letting god into your heart, you’re letting trauma control you.” My guy it has TRAUMA IN THE NAME OF THE DISORDER.

I didn’t go through trauma for you to fucking deny what I went through, I was bound to be labelled by the Christian church due to my autism which was bad enough! I won’t apologize for not having the empathy due to trauma nor will I bend the knee. I have a lot of resentment for authority figures due to my past with school-related issues. It’s bad enough I already have disorders to deal with and you’re making it worse (LOOKING AT YOU RELIGIOUS FANATICS AND EXTREMISTS).

My bipolar pessimism mixed with my cptsd along with my resentment for authority figures already makes me have extremely negative views on religion and god itself.

Closing statement: my faith in religion and god is fucking dead, gone, nothing. No that won’t ever change.

Stop denying medical stuff!

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[imkeepinit]

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[dogstomp]

Dogstomp #2854 - October 30th

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